Stepping Up to the Plate

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Every now and then, we have to do something at work or at school that makes us feel a little uncomfortable. For many of us, that task has something to do with public speaking or doing a presentation in front of a bunch of people. This happened to me today at my business-networking luncheon. To my surprise, I found myself more excited than nervous about getting up there and talking to the other members of the Network Referral Group of Santa Clarita about one of my favorite things to do: handwriting analysis. 

Last week, I volunteered to do presentation when another member discovered he couldn’t attend the meeting. The topic was an easy choice for me, since I already spent the previous Sunday afternoon doing handwriting analyses at Happy Pets veterinary practice. One of my friends and NRG partners is a veterinarian and owner of the practice; I accepted donations for a slush fund that helps financially strapped clients pay for veterinary care in exchange for a brief handwriting analysis. I knew this topic would be interesting and entertaining for the other NRG members to learn about since we all write (or print) in our professions. Furthermore, most people are curious about themselves. Handwriting is a great way to tell a lot about someone’s personality in a short time and with very little effort on the part of the writer or the handwriting analyst (me).

One of the things I learned and have always remembered from the Public Speaking class in my hypnotherapy certification was how to stay confident and relaxed during a presentation. I can still remember how George Kappas, M.A., C.Ht., the director of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, gave my class that pep talk about this topic. He encouraged us to look forward to every opportunity to promote our hypnotherapy practice this way, reminding and reassuring us that we would know a lot more about this topic (hypnosis) than anyone else in the room. We would be the experts in the room and should “own” the topic with confidence, he enthused. And then the final zinger: We already knew so much about this field that there was no reason for any of us to even need notes during this kind of presentation, except perhaps the briefest topic guideline. 

So when I went to the front of the room this afternoon, I did not really need to think about which material I would present during the next ten minutes or so that were allotted to me. I had a few props to help me: a printed handout for everyone to describe the writing features I examine and a white board to provide “illustrations” of those characteristics. While I held a copy of the handout in my hand for quick reference, I only glanced at it once to determine which material I felt I needed to cover in the remaining minute of my talk. Then, I invited questions and even did an impromptu mini-analysis of someone’s writing before the meeting was adjourned.

And George Kappas was right: I didn’t need notes, after all, and I did have a lot of fun doing the presentation about a topic I know so well. If necessary, I would be happy to step up again to do another presentation about some aspect of my work as a hypnotherapist. Indeed, I’m already getting ideas about what I can talk about next time. I can’t wait!

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

Unwitting Victims of Hyper-Suggestibility

Victims of Hyper-Suggestibility?

Just when I was starting to worry that I still had no idea what to write about for today’s blog, inspiration struck when I heard a news report about a very unusual prank that happened yesterday in Minneapolis. Apparently, someone called a Burger King restaurant under the guise of warning the workers that there was a dangerous gas leak that could blow up the building. The caller reportedly advised the manager that this disaster could be prevented by smashing all of the windows to ventilate the building and clear out the gas. Ultimately, the workers broke all of the windows as the caller instructed them to do. At least one person reportedly went along with this action out of fear and, significantly, because everyone else was doing it.

The hosts of a popular radio show I was listening to immediately started to crack up and even make jokes about the employees who fell for this prank. I, on the other hand, felt sorry and a little sad about what happened to these workers. After all, they took this drastic action in the belief that it was the correct and even heroic thing to do to save their place of employment. Answering a phone call in which the person at the other end of the line warns that you are at risk of being caught in a gas explosion would make most people nervous and hyper-suggestible.

Based on what I know about suggestibility and behavior, this is how the scenario played out in an employee’s subconscious mind:

·         The work environment in a fast-food restaurant is usually very busy. Even if there weren’t throngs of customers present when the call came in, the employees were probably still in a state of natural hypnosis. In addition to dealing with the public, the repetitive action of flipping burgers, packaging the meals and counting change (stimuli overload) would make anyone extremely suggestible.

·         In addition, the smell of food cooking might or even the time of day when the person “typically” eats could have triggered a hunger response in one or more of these individuals. As I wrote in my previous blog titled Nutrition and the Development of Phobias, low blood-sugar levels, which are associated with hunger can exacerbate or even cause a person’s presenting problem (behavior or belief). Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., reported that it is also common for a person to experience psychological symptoms such as depression, paranoia, irritability and memory problems when blood-sugar levels drop.

·         The three principles of hypnotic modalities also played a role in influencing the employees' reaction. First: The purported identity of the person on the phone was a posing as a firefighter (authority). Second: The potential validity of the warning of an impending explosion, unless the employees followed the caller’s instructions (the message). Third: The official-sounding voice and the terrifying content of this warning ultimately influenced (overload) how the employees responded to this threat. Most people trust firefighters: they rush into burning buildings to save lives, they rescue kittens stuck in high trees. The fallout from the 2010 gas explosion that took out an entire neighborhood in San Bruno, California, is still being felt in that community. So when a fireman contacts your place of business to help you avert a similar tragedy, wouldn’t you give him the benefit of the doubt? At least, at first?

·         Finally, the collective worry and panic that this threat would come true became its own destructive force. Have you have ever found yourself standing up and joining other fans do “the wave” at a sports event, without knowing why you’re doing it? Have ever wondered at the influence that one fussy toddler has, to be able to inspire just about every other baby in a room to join in the cacophony of screaming? Anxiety breeds anxiety, and when threat to life, limb and financial security are involved natural skepticism that would have otherwise prevented such an extreme reaction often goes out the window. In this instance, this metaphor became a reality.

Yes, logic, reasoning and good judgement probably would have made at least one of these employees question the veracity of this warning. But when you are working at a busy fast-food restaurant for minimum-wage pay and suddenly learn that your source of income—and you—could blow up “unless,” it’s a little easier to understand the employees’ reaction. Unfortunately, the collective hyper-suggestibility of these individuals also made them the brunt of two cruel jokes: that of the original prank caller(s) and the radio hosts.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

The Representation of Food in an Eating Disorder

According to Dr. John Kepner, a hypnotherapist and expert in treating eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (self-starvation) and bulimia (bingeing and purging) tend to be learned behaviors without an obvious organic cause. However, these syndromes can result in severe physiological consequences, including death. These individuals can also experience extreme levels of depression and high levels of emotional suggestibility (somnambulism), he warned.

Children, adolescents and adults who suffer from these diseases have an uneasy relationship with food, Dr. Kepner observed. On the one hand, food is often associated with nurturing and being loved or cared for during infancy and early childhood, because the primary caretaker is fulfilling this basic survival requirement. On the other hand, the individual may experience separation anxiety and even suffer generalized anxiety if the parent or primary caretaker does not love or take care of the person.

Social pressures and expectations to be slim can also influence these behaviors, such as the frequent emphasis society and the media places on being thin as the “ideal” physique. The majority of the population does not look the way people are seen in movies, on television and in fashion advertisements. However, someone who has one of these eating disorders will tend to process this message to an extreme degree and is already hyper-suggestible to these messages. Ultimately, Dr. Kepner warned, the person starts to believe that achieving this ideal super-skinny shape or low weight is a panacea for all his or her emotional problems, such as resolving fear of abandonment issues or finding a loving partner.

In this person’s mind, food becomes an “enemy” whereby the idea of food/eating leads to getting fat and will result in being unloved. This trans-logic process would evoke anxiety about food or eating, thus inducing the person to simply not eat (anorexia) or induce vomiting or use diuretics and laxatives to get rid of any sustenance (bulimia) that has been ingested. Needless to say, “Anorexics and bulimics rarely seek hypnosis for fear of being revealed or made to gain weight,” said Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder Dr. John Kappas.

If a client does come in for therapy, a good starting point for this process is to “start moving the client to physical suggestibility, to come outside herself and get control over her symptoms, said Dr. Kepner. It is important to get the client to accept suggestions about gaining weight in hypnosis and in cognitive therapy, Dr. Kappas added.

In order to work with a person who has anorexia nervosa or bulimia in hypnosis, the hypnotherapist must refer this client to a licensed medical doctor or mental-health professional for treatment, Dr. Kappas said. With a referral from an appropriate licensed professional to make this diagnosis and for treatment, the hypnotherapist may also work with the client to help to boost the person’s self-confidence/self-esteem and self-image, create a stop-mechanism for the binge-purge cycle, etc. Hypnosis and therapeutic-guided imagery strategies can also facilitate the client's compliance with recommended treatment regimens, etc., and encourage the client and his or her family to work with the mental-health expert to resolve Family Systems issues.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

Thoughts of the Day

Photo by Sara Fogan

      Every now and then I like (and need) to take a few moments and remind myself about what is really important to me, in my life. If you follow me on my Calminsense Hypnotherapy Facebook page you may have seen some of these quotes before on this page, or will in the future. Many of these Quotes of the Day are beautiful examples and illustrations of the work I do as a hypnotherapist, so I will probably draw on them in future essays.

• “Oh, what we could be if we stopped carrying the remains of what we were.” – Tyler Knott Gregson

• “Let go or be dragged.” – Zen proverb

• “Our intuition doesn’t always tell us why. Listen anyway and you’ll find out later.” – Kate Northrup

• “Be mindful how you release your negativity so that it does not reflect back into your reality.” – Deepak Chopra

• “In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.” – Buddha

• “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.” – Abraham Maslow

• “Trust the process. Your time is coming. Just do the work and the results will handle themselves.” – Tony Gaskins

• “If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” – John Irving

• “The things we love we have to learn to leave alone.” – Naomi Long Madgett

• “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of reality.” – Ayn Rand

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

Mysteries and the Detectives Who Solve Them

If I was given a choice about the genre of books I could read and movies and television shows I could watch, and I was limited to just one genre, mysteries/thrillers would be my choice, hands down. For me, nothing is as interesting or thrilling as a complicated puzzle to solve. When that puzzle surrounds human behavior, emotions and motivations, to quote a famous (fictional) 19^th-Century investigator, “The game is afoot!”

I don’t know precisely what fascinates me about these stories. A complicated plot with multi-dimensional characters certainly makes for entertaining study. Is the puzzle or crime realistic? Is the “bad guy” as likely to be a sympathetic character as the “hero” is to be potentially flawed or even irritating? The straight-up plot of detestable criminal going toe-to-toe with an all-around saintly investigator does not interest me, nor is it very realistic. People and their motives and emotions are complicated, and I think this should also be true in a fictional tale. 

Referring to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, our behavior is built and based on a series of experiences and beliefs that create the Subconscious Mental Script. It is ultimately difficult or even impossible to imagine an existence that is different from our own or to behave in a way that is out of our realm of experience—until we learn how, that is. I think it was William Shakespeare who once said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (A similar version of this philosophy is also in Ecclesiastes 1:9). Fantastic stories about vigilante heroes who wear long capes or modern-day armor and can soar through the air, solving essentially familiar crimes that center on jealousy and vengeance, are still too “unknown” to me.

If it’s between Marvel Comic’s Batman versus Colin Dexter’s curmudgeonly yet brilliant Chief Inspector Morse or Chelsea Cain’s emotionally damaged Detective Archie Sheridan, I’ll take the detective mysteries, thank you very much. I can wrap my mind around inexplicable deaths in bucolic Oxford, England and the complicated relationship between a Portland, Oregon detective and his quarry, a beautiful serial killer. I have visited these cities and the crimes depicted, while often horrible and grotesque, are still believable. Indeed, when I was working on my post-graduate degree in London, I heard a news report that a corpse had been found buried under floorboards in a home. I had recently started watching the Inspector Morse series on television, and an episode that aired around the same time featured a similar macabre discovery. I remember wondering if art was imitating reality, or was it the other way around.

I also find that mysteries involve a bit of reader-participation, which I really enjoy. Sure, it’s easy to get swept away with the action depicted in a romance or historical novel. But when there is a question to answer or a puzzle to solve, all of my senses become heightened. I understand best through inference and metaphor, so whenever a character does or says virtually anything, I can’t help but wonder about the potentially hidden meaning behind that action. Was that a clue? What does that gesture or throwaway reference suggest? If the prime suspect’s brother created that object, why does he (the suspect) have it in his own home? Maybe that character isn’t really who we think he (or she) is.

Whether I am watching the story unfold on-screen or poring over the descriptions in a book, I can’t help myself from looking for clues about the crime depicted in the plot. I study the descriptions of behavior and I draw on my background in psychology and hypnotherapy training to figure out the motivations of the characters. It is always fun for me to be able to solve part or all of the mystery along with the fictitious investigators, but I actually prefer the ones that I can’t figure out without the protagonist’s detailed explanation.

I believe that in some way, vicariously solving those puzzles helps keep me in shape for my work as a certified hypnotherapist. These stories enable me to use the creative, imaginative part of my mind to identify and apply some of the theories and behavior models I have studied. According to Neuro-Linguistic Programming models I use in my hypnotherapy practice, inflection of the voice or flushing of the skin is a clue to a person’s emotions and behaviors. So when I come across a description of this kind of physiological change in a character’s body, my own behavioral-detection radar goes up. Of course, obviously my work is very different from that of a licensed investigator or police detective. I may only work with individuals to help them achieve vocational and avocational self-improvement goals. If you want help to overcome writer’s block to complete a John Creasey Silver Dagger-award winning mystery a là the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny, give me a call. However, I’m not the one to call to help you solve the actual crime upon which your best-selling book is based.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016